Have you ever thought why it is so challenging to create happiness and be successful in life? Here are twelve basic traits and values that could help you as an individual towards achieving happiness & success whether it is at your workplace or in your overall life.
1. Know yourself
The most important thing is to know your strengths and weaknesses as well as your opportunities and threats in order to face the challenges around you. Know your priorities and focus on them to avoid interruptions in achieving productivity and success. You need to accept the reality about yourself before you manage yourself and the people around you. Be aware of your potential and uniqueness as this will help you move forward in life. Write down all the key points about your strengths, opportunities, priorities, potential and uniqueness as well as your achievements to keep yourself on track. Also list your weaknesses, threats and interruptions to decide which of these your need to overcome or find solutions for.
2. Self-confidence
Self-confidence is the most valuable trait and it’s necessary to practice this to bring faith in yourself and your abilities. There will be people in your surrounding that may have inadequacies to understand and appreciate you. However it may not be necessary react or response to these neither should you be demoralized or sad about what others think about you as this will affect your self-confidence. Remember you can’t satisfy everyone out there. In fact these could be accepted positively as an input to help you do better or make necessary changes without affecting your self-confidence. Self-confidence will be required to help you overcome your weaknesses.
3. Self responsible
Responsibility is a highly regarded value. This means that you should be responsible for your own actions, and if you have decided on something, then you should head on with it and be willing to manage the consequences or any adverse effects that arise. However reassess the actions and make necessary decisions on changes to prevent further undesired consequences.
4. Assertive
Being assertive is necessary. You have to be firm with your own priorities and approach. Highlight or stress your points clearly, yet flexible and open to new things. Assertiveness should be practiced with self-confidence and responsibility.
5. Wisdom and respect for others
It is important to practice wisdom in your actions and decisions. Be prepared for all reactions and feedback. Handle them with care and wisdom and show respect to other’s opinion and feelings. Complaints are part of any system, so learn to manage them without being intimidated. We can’t satisfy everyone but can do our best within our capacity.
6. Manage conflicts well
Conflicts could also arise, therefore be prepared to listen to all parties. Do not make decision by listening to just one party. Have an open discussion or a personal one depending on the situation in order to handle the conflict.
7. Problem-solving
Address a problem and come up with appropriate solutions. Take into consideration all necessary factors around you. If you leave a problem unattended, you may build-up more problems and create a tensed situation. Seek expert advice if necessary by having a mentor or going for counseling when necessary.
8. Self-pride
It is good to be proud of yourself as if could boost your self-esteem and self-confidence, however do not be arrogant.
9. Continuous learning and improvement
Enhance your knowledge, skills and abilities as they are important as a key to happiness and success. Practice continuous learning and take necessary steps to improve yourself.
10. Having a variety of skills
Having a good mix of interpersonal, technical & management skills is important to solve problems, make decisions, carry out your duties and deal with everyone around you. There are various ways of achieving these perhaps through relevant training and practice, mentoring, reading or perhaps through seminars/courses.
11. Keep fit & healthy
It is very important to keep fit and healthy to avoid stress. Take up activities that help you exercise like dancing, yoga or playing games. Keeping fit benefits in many ways; it takes care of all the systems in your body such as improving your blood circulation, prevents from digestive problems and provides you with mental strength and abilities to perform your duties and other daily chores. Through your activities you may also find friends.
12. Balance your life
It’s necessary to balance your life with many things. Have some activities of your interest that could bring you fun and joy e.g. camping, writing and joining clubs and societies. This will also help you to network, communicate, learn, share as well as vent your feelings, ideas and thoughts. Being a workaholic may not be good and could create unhappiness and stress with your personal relationships and affect your overall quality of life. So do take a break or find time to relax to avoid buildup of pressure and lethargy that would affect your productivity, satisfaction and happiness.
